The costs of a flight school pt.2

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After the general introduction on the costs that a flight school has to bear (you can read the article here | The costs of a flight school), let's get to the heart of the matter:

 

A SMALL, SMALL FLYING SCHOOL:

For a very small school where perhaps the Head of Training is an instructor, who also acts as Accountable Manager, the Safety Manager and CMM figures are grouped into a single consultant who spends a few days a month doing audits and organization and administration are carried out by a single person, the annual staff cost is about 200,000 euros. This is precisely the starting point for managing the minimum of operations in a very familiar way.

 

Add to the costs that we said before of insurance and depreciation of the vehicle (assuming you have only a small single-engine aircraft)t he rent of the hangar and office (assuming we are guests of some larger structure that only makes us pay for the space occupied), of the management costs (accountant, work studio, stationery, equipment, enac costs) and I GUARANTEE that in no time at all we reach around 300,000 euros per year.

 

LET'S ADD SOME REALISM:

 

Flight schools who read this article will laugh because they are very highly rated counts and, to be fair, it is quite unlikely that a school has only one medium and the economies of scale that apply to a larger fleet, via via reduce these costs.

So let's do this, to be more realistic: let's add a vehicle and a flight instructor to be able to sell more hours. Now the fixed costs are about 400,000 euros but the hours that can be sold are double (basic principle of the economy of scale).

Now let's calculate a strange thing that is the break even: an hour of flight is sold for 250 euros, we prudently raise 50 euros for fuel (which is constantly increasing) and 20 euros for maintenance (estimated by default) and we have left 180 Euros of operating margin.

Break even is the calculation of how many hours of flight I have to do to cover the 400,000 euros of fixed costs that we have previously calculated: dividing fixed costs by hourly operating margin we exceed 2000 flight hours… wwwooowww with two machines and two instructors? It is a very ambitious target!

What if a pupil makes a heavy landing and I have to change the landing gear? (the insurance has a deductible, just to be precise). If I have to overhaul the engine? What if I have to change an outdated radio? The figures of these interventions are all with three or four zeros and increase the flight hours that I have to do by the end of the year to cover my costs.

 

 

 

Sorry if I simplified too much and invented data that are not entirely attributable to a real plane, but it is only to show the calculation that must be done to be able to close the balance sheets at the end of the year and to sleep peacefully at least and that if someone did before open schools and aeroclubs, perhaps he would think twice.

 

You see, flight schools, like restaurants, seem simple to manage but you have to be very good at reckoning to stay on your feet: implement the right prices, focus on quality and safety and try to make these "invisible assets" perceived. in order not to let the students run away to schools that sell flight hours with unsustainable figures and then perhaps skimp on quality.

 

Remember: you put your seat on the aircraft ... would you rent a car without overhaul or with smooth tires?

 

 

This article is a bit provocative, towards those students who complain every day about how much the aviation world costs and towards those schools that sell licenses for 8,000 euros.

 

...and now: happy landings,whatever your choice!